About

Chef and Steward is a blog devoted to enriching and transforming people’s lives through food, travel, lifestyle and wellness. Here you will find food for your body, mind and spirit.

I am Kari Heron, a disciple of Christ, mom to one toddler, 30-something Transformational Speaker, Certified Coach, Strategist and Content Queen on a mission to lead a full, meaningful and pursposeful life and help others do the same. I help others shatter inner glass ceilings in order to become the very gift that we are all created to be to the world. I am one who speaks life and love calling every dormant and dead gift in us to artist! Life is for the living! Life is so bland without good food and good times. As much as I am intrigued by gastronomical delights, I am working on balancing both the kitchen and bathroom scales (ha)! Healthy food can be tasty and tasty food can be healthy. Food is medicine but that doesn’t mean it ought to taste like it. I run a mostly low carb, paleo, keto, gluten free Chef and Steward Test Kitchen at home. Here’s why.

This is an award winning blog having won silver for the Best Expat Blog for the entire UAE in 2012 and Best Overseas Jamaican Blog 2013 in the Jamaican Blog Awards.

Originally from the beautiful Caribbean island of Jamaica, I am an expat woman who has lived in four countries and two hemispheres. You will see a lot about Dubai and the Middle East and the Caribbean on this blog- particularly Aruba and Jamaica. Subscribe to the blog for a ride on this borderless life journey!

Comments

Thanks love. It has taken me over a year to get it off the ground but NOTHING happens before its time. It feels so “right” to me. Noticed that I linked to you for your wonderful written and tasty treats!

Thanks Ludlow. I agree, many of us never stay on an eating regime long enough because the food either doesn’t taste good or fill you up. Diets dont work but lifestyle changes do. Will be working on the recipes. Most of the them will be mere guides and not exact measurements. My aim is to get people to cook organically, as in being guided, not controlled by recipes. Food tastes so much better when you modify it to your tastes.

Yvonne, thank you so much! I believe food starts a conversation about so many things and it is a uniter in this multi-cultural world we live in. As busy as we are, we all have to pause and eat and the more aware of what we eat, the better the food tastes and the better it makes us feel!

Sonia. I am so with you! I LOVE food. No apologies. I am the daughter of a farmer and a seafood purveyor and the wife of a chef. My ties with food are far and deep. Homeopathic medicine stands on the principle that “What kills you, also cures you.” This is also true for food. Food is not evil by nature, but denatured food is. Cooking our meals is a way of loving ourselves and we transfer all that love to our bodies when we sit for a beautiful, tasty and filling meal!

Love the pictures! The food looks mouth watering. I can only say WOW. I am inspired by this idea that both of you are undertaking. Will keep checking out your recipes and will try them from time to time. Blessings and Light.

Thanks. We are working to make it as tantalizing as we can. It’s a lot of work but it brings us lots of joy. Gibran wrote “Work is love made visible.” This is the joy of our work together. Please try the dishes and come back and tell us about them!

Hi Kari:
I am all excited about your blog. I arrived in Abu Dhabi from Jamaica as an expatriate six weeks ago. I am loving the experience but have not been able to find the right spices to capture the Jamaican flavour in my cooking. I would welcome some suggestions. Keep up the good work.

Pepy, we are all connected. We met a lovely Indonesian lady who has invited us over for some Indonesian food. We can’t wait, especially since your blog opened up our appetites so! So you love Jamaican food huh? Cool! We will continue to showcase more of our cuisine from our homeland as we cook from all over the world!

It’s a bit cumbersome voting but it doesn’t take long so I would encourage others who are voting to stick it out . If Chef and Steward is the only blog you’re voting for then you’ll fine their nomination in the food category, but still need to indicate who you’re voting for in the other categories or that you’re not voting .
Vote for Chef and Steward!

First, you two are simply beautiful. Yes, beautiful to look at, but that is not only what I mean. The light and love inside of the two of you shines bright on my computer screen.

Second, AMAZING sight. For 25 years I have been educating myself about food and how it impacts our health. I am passionate about creating healthy comfort foods that and educating others that good, healthy food can be enjoyed.

I am going through an unbelievably tragic situation, after an earlier life altering tragedy (losing my son) in ’98. My weight and, consequently my emotions, are spiraling. Last night I asked God (I am not at all religious, but deeply spiritual.) to send me where I needed to go. This morning as I was getting ready to work on my blog, I saw your vanilla recipe and clicked on your blog.

Yes, I am being wordy, but I just need you to know that this morning, when I needed you most, you have inspired me.

Thank both of you for your beautiful, bright shining light of love. You shared it with me right when I needed it so badly.

Luv your blog! Amazing collaboration of skills and humor all rolled into one. Great food with detailed descriptions of it…and the pictures…ahhh mouth watering! 🙂
I stumbled on your blog thanks to a google search for escoveitch and after I read:
“Ceviche, is a natural preservative and the acid in it cooks the food. A little zealous for fire-cooked food, our people had to “Jamaicanize it” by cooking it on the stove and then ‘cooking it’ again with the vinegary escoveitch… you know, to make certain the fish is really dead!”
It all made that much more sense and one could say…ahhhhh with a smile thanks to the detailed and on point description  Keep it going! Luv it!!!

I just found this site today and am so glad I did! I am from a family of Jamaicans who migrated to the United States where we currently live but we maintain ties to JA through music, travel and of course, food. The pictures on this site are absolutely gorgeous and I’m so glad I’ve found you!

Hi Kari,
Your blog is really inspiring, I just started mine and found yours. The reason why I started the blog was because I need to have a creative excuse to spend more time with my (chef) husband, so I ‘demand’ to create this blog together, hopefully this will bring us closer again.
I definitely will visit your blog often!

I wish I had discovered your website sooner as I was in the UAE less than 6 weeks ago. I would have loved to have met you both and sampled some of your delicacies. I’m still maneuvering around your website and loving it so far. It’s Caribbean people like you who have inspired me to start food blogging.